1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the use of magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and more particularly to such use for determining pathology, vascularization and nodel involvement of a biopsy of breast tissue.
2. Description of the Related Art
Within this application several publications are referenced by arabic numerals within parentheses. Full citations for these and other references may be found at the end of the specification immediately preceding the claims. The disclosures of all of these publications in their entireties are hereby incorporated by reference into this application in order to more fully describe the state of the art to which this invention pertains.
Clinical evaluation, mammography and aspiration cytology or core biopsy (triple assessment) is undertaken on women presenting with breast lesions in most Western countries. Clinical assessment of palpable breast lumps is unreliable (1, 2). Impalpable lesions are usually discovered by screening or diagnostic mammography, which has a reported sensitivity of 77-94% and a specificity of 92-95% (3). Cytological assessment of fine needle aspiration biopsies (FNAB) has sensitivities ranging from 65-98% and specificities ranging from 34-100% (4) depending on the skill of the person performing the aspiration and the expertise of the cytopathologist.
Following surgical excision of the lesion a time consuming process of preparation and pathological assessment of the specimen determines the nature of the tumour and the prognostic features associated with it.